Post navigation

Wells Fargo Has to Earn Your Trust Back. Again.

I think the Black Keys might be getting another call from Wells Fargo.

The Justice Department is currently investigating if Wells Fargo’s wholesale banking unit improperly altered customer information. The Wall Street Journal reported that the wholesale banking unit has allegedly improperly altered customer documents to add social security numbers and dates of birth. This is not the first issue Wells Fargo has dealt with in recent months.

Yahoo Finance provides a detailed history of all of Wells Fargo’s issues since September 2016 here. Some of the highlights from Yahoo Finance are listed below:

In September 2016, Wells Fargo admitted to opening millions of consumer accounts without customer permission. That scandal resulted in $185 million dollars in fines, the creation of 1.5 million fake accounts, and more than 500,000 fake credit cards. This incident resulted in Wells Fargo firing 5,300 entry level employees, firing the CEO John Stumpf, and paying a $142 million judgment.

In September 2016, Wells Fargo also repossessed cars of active duty military members. That mistake ended up costing the bank $30 million in fines and restitution.

In April 2018, Wells Fargo had to pay a $1 billion-dollar settlement because the bank charged auto loan holders for insurance without their knowledge.

In May 2018, the bank paid a $480 million-dollar settlement to their investors because they hid the fake account issue. The same issue led to a SEC fine of $4 million.

In July 2018, Wells Fargo had to refund over $10 million dollars to consumers because the bank added on products like pet insurance and legal services without customer knowledge.

With apologies to the Black Keys, Wells Fargo should consider a tighten up of the compliance department before they end up dead and gone.